The reason we need to do a better job with our forum

The following is an email I received from a mother of a young child. This email was sent to my yahoo account. The only way to get my yahoo account here is to click on my name. If it would have came from the tournament page it would have been sent to my work email.

SN has a chance to do something really good with this form of commutation and we are shooting our self in the foot. IMO

Hello Mr. Keith,

I have a son (11 yrs) that has become interested in disc golf. We live in St. Tammany parish and do not have a lot of opportunities to play. He came upon the website for the Southern Nationals and saw your tournament for the La Cote Disc golf course in honor of Kaitlin Aydell. I am certain that you are extrememly busy, but could you possibly help us out. He owns a few of his own discs, but we have no idea hour tourneys work. Here are a couple of questions we have..

* Are 11 yr olds even allowed to play? He will be 12 in Feb., but for now he is only in Jr. High.
* Is it possible to watch your event if you are not allowed to play?
* What direction would you give a young player who is interested in this sport, but has no mentor?

Thank you so much for the help. We appreciate your time. Good luck with your event. It looks to be very exciting.

Cherie Stafford

For the non believers, let me know and I will forward the email to you.

I'm in no way a non-believer. My only thoughts on this is that if we had a content rich front end on this website we would A. Already have these questions answered B. Probably have a lot less people like this stumbling into our forums looking for this sort of information.

I have ZERO doubt that these people exist and are looking for this sort of information. But the forum (or any forum) is not where one should be having to look to get general information about disc golf and participation or spectating.

Luckily there is a VERY good chance that people like this only read the first page IF that of a tournament thread and probably nothing more. Why, because they don't care about the people posting "I bet you I will beat your or I'll shave my head" nonsense or "NO Team will be there"... nothing wrong with either of these post, but these people are obviously not interested in that type of discourse and will have gotten most of what they needed by the first post or so.

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Take me to the window and understand
I got a rocking chair in my skin.
And every time the wind blows
It brings me down to meet the mood I'm in.
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How many have seen the negative talk and said " I don't want my child/family/spouse........involved in this"?

We can not answer any of those questions, but we can control OUR behavior. I know I screw up on here and am trying to do better. All I am saying we as a group can do better with our actions. I have invited this family to come out and see the event in person. He will not leave here empty handed!!! People like this are the people that will grow our sport/series more than anything else.

keith i see where your going with this and really i think that they would read deep into the forums if they are really interested in the game of disc golf; frankly im scared to say much more than that.

You are right... they would read deeper into the forums at that point. I think we have all learned that you don't need a forum to have drama in Disc Golf!

Keith, you recently bought a truck, I'm sure you did a fair amount of research on it... but I'm willing to bet you didn't go read many forums about it (if any) and there are WAY more forums about your truck than there are Disc Golf. This is in no way meant to attack you but to just bring in that experience that I know you recently had.

Another example:
If one would decide to get interested in learning about Autism, I'm sure they would go to many websites and read MANY articles about the issue. But unless they REALLY got involved in the autism community they would probably NEVER have to read a forum about it because there is a plethora of info on the subject outside of the forums (which I'm certain there are probably more forums on autism the DG too.)

It's all about providing enough content so that people looking for this kind of casual information will be satisfied in the correct fashion and not end up stumbling in here because they don't see what they are looking for where one would typically find that information. We look up SO much information every day on the internet and rarely do we need to dig into a forum for said information. This site should be no different.

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Take me to the window and understand
I got a rocking chair in my skin.
And every time the wind blows
It brings me down to meet the mood I'm in.
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Take me to the window and understand
I got a rocking chair in my skin.
And every time the wind blows
It brings me down to meet the mood I'm in.
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1. There could be children looking at our forums. Represent.
2. Some important FAQs to put on any site promoting the sport.

Problem with number 2 for the SN is, of course, the SN does not have a web site within it's control. What we have is a wonderful tool to help tournament players keep up with the championship series. That is a great thing and maybe this is an "It is what it is" situation. Other web sites may better represent/promote the sport in general.

There are web site builders within the ranks of disc golf enthusiasts. Is it time for the SN to take it's best offer on having a web site to promote the sport and our series or would that be premature?

QuoteGilly
Keith, you recently bought a truck, I'm sure you did a fair amount of research on it... but I'm willing to bet you didn't go read many forums about it (if any) and there are WAY more forums about your truck than there are Disc Golf. This is in no way meant to attack you but to just bring in that experience that I know you recently had.

You are correct I did not read any forums about the truck I bought. The difference is I have bought like 10 cars/trucks in my life and don't need a forum for information. A 11 year old boy and his mother are looking for all the information thay can find about the sport. I understand what you are saying. Like I said in my first post, IMO

Granted, that is true Keith in this particular scenario it isn't 1:1 with yours. BUT it holds true because that was just an example and it's not always gonna be an 11 year old boy... it could be a potential sponsor (that is what most people are crying about most of the time).

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Take me to the window and understand
I got a rocking chair in my skin.
And every time the wind blows
It brings me down to meet the mood I'm in.
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True!!! My only reasoning for bring this up is to try to get us all to be more responsible in the thing we type here because we never who is reading it. Be negative on the private forum and keep this place "clean"

We should make the "Private" forum visible but not accessible. So at least people could know that it exist to ask permission to get to it.

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Take me to the window and understand
I got a rocking chair in my skin.
And every time the wind blows
It brings me down to meet the mood I'm in.
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Chunk Wrote:
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> Keith,
>
> What was your response to Mrs. Stafford? Did you
> intentionally not offer a junior's division for
> this event? If so, it seems kinda odd given the
> cause.

I have offered all am divisions. I am talking with his mother via email she will decide.

As far as the forums, I think the board is working on a policy (which other forums have and many enforce) and John K will be the one who decides what stays and what is pulled. At least that's what I recall.

Just basing this on the complaints I have seen about other's posts, I would say clean means no cursing, no personal attacks or namecalling. No reference to any type of "hobbies" that may go on during a tournament even if it really occurs and needs to be discussed because people are afraid others may see it. No negative feedback about a tournament unless you can mask it in a paragraph of really nice words. Simply saying "your tourney sucked" or "wtf is up with the payout" isn't going to cut it. You have to say something like "I really enjoyed your tournament and thanks so much to the volunteers, I know it is hard work and I appreciate it! Having said that I do have a problem with the payout, could you explain how it was calculated". TD's love that stuff! No posting of offensive pictures, logos, phrases, animations, etc. I'm sure there is more that people want regulated but I'm out of no-no's.

I truly don't see any big problems on here and don't know why this is even an issue. Some people go back and forth sure, but really, what's the harm? Occasionally people may cross the line on here but not often enough to justify someone having to sort through all this junk and edit it IMO.

Good post Thomas....I agree with your points....have fun....writing on the forum should be about promoting the sport....not about bashing TD's....or calling people out for "hobbies".......Very good points...play some golf people........

Wayne
Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.
George Carlin